Leading New Zealand producer Merata Mita, one of the co-producers of the hit New Zealand film Boy, has died after collapsing outside an Auckland TV station.
Mita, who received the New Zealand Order of Merit earlier this year, collapsed at MaoriTV's Newmarket studios on May 31. Efforts to resuscitate the filmmaker, who was born in 1942, were unsuccessful.
Boy producer Ainsley Gardiner told The New Zealand Herald that the death of her good friend, was a shock. She said that she had admired the acclaimed maori filmmaker's work since studying her at film school.
Mita wrote and directed 1988's Mauri, a tale of a rural Maori community's battle to overcome the loss of land and of its youth in the 1950s. She also produced documentaries such as 1983's Patu!, about the violent clashes between protesters and police during the 1981 Springboks tour.
Mita was involved in Boy throughout the filmmaking process, as a script advisor. Boy will screen at this month's Sydney Film Festival, before a national release in late 2010.
A full biography on Mita's career can be found here.
